WOMEN’S suicide rates are at their highest for a decade, alarming new figures reveal.

But men are still three times more likely to kill themselves.

An average of 17 people a day took their own life in the UK last year as the overall suicide rate rose slightly from 6,122 in 2014 to 6,188.

Death rates fell in England and Scotland but increased in Wales and Northern Ireland, the Office of National Statistics data shows.

Yorkshire and The Humber was the suicide hotspot, with 11.6 deaths per 100,000 people.

And the East of England had the lowest rate at 9.3 deaths per 100,000.

Katharine Sacks-Jones Director of Agenda

Experts blamed the rise in female suicide on a lack of proper mental health care for women.

Katharine Sacks-Jones, director of Agenda, the alliance for women and girls at risk, said: “The increase in women’s suicide is extremely worrying.

“While fewer women take their own lives than men overall, women are more likely to have suicidal thoughts and to make a suicide attempt.

“Our research has shown many women across the country are being failed by mental health services, with few trusts taking into account women’s needs.

“For example, women’s mental health is often closely linked to their experiences of violence and abuse.”

Women are also more likely than men to have a mental health problem and are almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with anxiety disorders.

Figures for self-harm among young women have also risen.

Among men, the number of suicides fell slightly – but the number of men under-30 taking their own lives increased.

Those most at risk are middle-aged men.

The National Suicide Prevention Advisory Group says those aged 45 to 49 are typically the hardest hit by redundancy and unemployment and many men see no way out.

As a result, they are often reluctant to seek help and are more likely to drink heavily and self-harm.

380 pairs of shoes were laid on the street in Ireland symbolising recent suicide deaths

Jodie Withers, Health Analyst at the Office for National Statistics, said “While the increase in the suicide rate this year is a result of an increase in female suicides, males still account for three quarters of all suicides.

“There has also been a continued increase in suicides for males under the age of 30.

“But these remain lower than the peak seen in the late 1990’s and remains significantly lower than the suicide rate for middle-aged males despite falls in recent years.”

Izzi Seccombe

Councillor Izzi Seccombe, chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “Every suicide tells a different but equally tragic story.

“The fact there have been more than 6,000 suicides in the previous year shows the need for suicide to be recognised as a major national public health concern.

“The rise in suicide rates highlights the urgency for a root and branch overhaul of mental health services that focuses on prevention.”

She added: “Suicide is preventable and we must all work together to develop community-based suicide prevention plans that reach out to every part of England.”

Our Aims: About Us

To support users and ex-users of psychiatric services in the Manchester area. The organisation provides a forum for services users to have a bona fide say in planning and provision of mental health services.

Protesters in King’s Lynn fight against mental health service cuts

Protesters took to the streets of King’s Lynn to voice their anger at what they described as “continuous” cutbacks to mental health services in west Norfolk.

Mental health cuts protest

A protest march against cuts to mental health services and the Fermoy Unit at the QEH took place in King's Lynn town centre. Picture: Matthew Usher.

More than 100 campaigners marched from The Walks through the town centre before finishing outside the Majestic Cinema.

Peter Smith, former parliamentary candidate for south-west Norfolk said: “We are in the fight of our lives here.”

The protest was triggered by the Fermoy Unit, an in-patient NHS facility in Lynn for mental health, which campaigners say faces an uncertain future. The unit was briefly closed to new admissions earlier this month, but reopened last week, albeit with fewer beds.

Mr Smith said: “In my lifetime we have never had to fight like this, but what is the alternative?”

But Debbie White, director of operations for Norfolk at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, said there were now no plans to axe the Fermoy Unit.

She added: “It is right that mental health services should be valued and funded on the same level as acute health services, and it is understandable people feel passionate about the Fermoy Unit remaining open.”

Labour party activist Jo Rust insisted the issue would not disappear. She said: “They have been talking about closing it for a long time. We will fight and we will not let them do that.”

Beth Anthony, 18 of Dersingham, said: “We are here to protest against the continuous cuts to the mental health service, we think it’s unacceptable. My younger brother suffers from poor mental health and has to travel to London... That is to the detriment of my family because we have to pay for him to go down by train every single month.”